Private On Black Wings

[Cyprian Ichar]

For hours, Cyprian had sat quietly with is men, gunship drifting listlessly between the cracks of a giant ice crystal. The ship was running cold, every non-essential system cut, including life support. Everyone aboard now wore their hardsuits. For the Lord Commander there was virtually no change in attire, as he almost never without his armor. Fresh initiates confused him for a Mandalorian, but Cyprian was simply a cautious man who felt naked without his armor. Inside the bridge, it was dim, the only light coming from faint starlight and small monitors being used by their resident sensor operators to keep track of passive readings.

Several ships throughout the icy field were in a similar state, burrowed within ice, becoming background noise with other lifeless objects. Meanwhile, it was a different story for Phiri station, the collection rig alive as it blasted apart ice and sucked it up into its tanks. Several fighters and corvettes buzzed around the space station is it conducted its work providing a protective screen against would be raiders. There were enough defenders to ward off common rabble, but they couldn't withstand a serious assault by any of the larger privateer forces under the employ of the Emberline, possessing some vessels even more impressive than what the Union could muster. The shoddy collection orbiting Phiri is what counted as the typical "fleet" in these parts.

The station was a prime asset of the Union, one the Emberline couldn't ignore. Especially as a double agent had tipped them off about the coordinates of its precise location within the nebula.

Cyprian was sure they would come.

It couldn't be long now.

Spoiler

Deep within Wild Space, the unstable Zelean Union ("Unionists") has been at war with the upstart Emberline revolutionaries for control of the Zelean expanse, a nebula chock-full of underdeveloped but resource rich worlds. Both factions had been locked in bitter stalemate years. However, as the threat of the Bryn'adûl looms, the Union looks to finally break the stalemate to bring the Emberline to the negotiating table with leverage and refocus Union military efforts on the new existential threat. However, that task is easier said than done, as the Emberline have recently bolstered their force with powerful mercenary outfits, including Mandalorians. However, the Union has their own ace in the sleeve: The Balarac, former slave soldiers who have helped them win a string of victories.

The next flashpoint in their civil war is the ice fields of the Zelean Expanse, a large source of water, hydrogen, and helium fuel for the entire region. Under the guidance of the Balarac, the Unionists have launched a trap, using one of their precious collection stations as bait to lure out a portion of naval and privateer forces for an elaborate ambush.

Jett Vox

 

[Jett Vox]

Readouts flared across the viewscreen of her visor. Ship readouts speeding across her field of vision. The attack force was hastily derived, cobbled mix of skirmishers and larger gunships, as if the attack was planned on a moment's notice... which is exactly what had happened. Jett and her fellow Mandalorians were conscripted from a peacekeeping group to derive additional ship numbers for the assault. The Revolt had offered up a handful of cruisers, augmented with smaller craft and a hastily formed direct assault plan... a recipe for disaster, and although she had not spoken, Jett knew an Ambush well from her upbringing in the Unknown Regions, where such things were common, and this one stunk so hard of one that her anxiety fought the climate controls of her armored suit.

The Mandalore skirmishers were the first to break ranks, led by Jett herself - the only Commando with any combat experience. Two Mandalore fighters flanked her distinctive Chiss Clawcraft. White, except for a red stripe painted across the side - indicating that the pilot was the Red Mando.

The Nebula had been tough for the larger ships to navigate, but Jett and her companions' much faster craft excelled in the deep.

They were to take weapons readings and relay the sensor readings back. Her orders, which flooded through the com, were to engage the small craft only, and to stay out of range of the larger vessels. Since the three craft lacked sensor beacons, it would be tougher for the craft to be read out. She had been trained well, this Mando. A survivor.

 

[Cyprian Ichar]

The Balarac crews maintained radio silence as the Emberline finally emerged, even internally within the ship, communicating through the physical exchange of datapads and sign language. A sensor operator waved them over to her station, then Cyprian drifted toward her with a slight push from his seat. She handed him a datapad, notes on the composition of enemy force strength detected so far on passive sensors.

It was quite a sizeable force. Multiple cruisers backed up by additional escorts. This was by no means a comprehensive analysis, but it was enough information to confirm that the Emberline had taken the bait.

For now, he allowed the battle to proceed without intervention to draw in the enemy deeper.

The Emberline edged out the Unionist forces in terms of raw numbers, but the smaller Unionist fleet packed some firepower starting with Phiri station itself. Formerly a civilian platform, during years of war, it had been militarized to better defend itself while carrying out its critical supply missions. Its multilayered shielding was quite strong too, made to withstand impacts by the ice crystals in unfortunate collisions. At least for a time, it could dish out some serious hurt, focusing its large array of turbolaser and ion banks on the largest ships of the Emberline fleet, and smaller computer guided quad lasers primed to take out attack craft and projectiles. Missile corvettes, mostly of the Corellian variety, and fighter bombers darted through the ice fields, looping around to flank enemy capital ships, while more nimble Outrider X-wings maintained defensive screens around the station to intercept enemy starfighters and boarders.

A legitimate engagement was unfolding, the Unonists giving all pretense of normal operating procedures. They could do convincingly, in fact, because almost none of their ranks were even aware of the Balarac's coming ambush.

Jett Vox

 

[Jett Vox]

<bzzt> Keep tight, don't let them outmaneuver you, <bzzt> came the staunch voice over the coms. It was at that moment, that Jett felt herself reliving the battle as if she had fought it before, and knew the futility of the attack. She punched a series of switches quickly that put her fighter on a virtual full-stop. She punched the same switches in an alternating pattern, causing lights to go from red, to yellow, to green, flashing readouts and trajectories, but showing a null speed. Suddenly she armed her cannons and the Mandalore fighters split off, disengaging with the rare small target available. Then, like a ball of death, the Chiss-fighter rained laser and blaster-fire in every direction, sending enemy fighters scrambling, and catching a few unlucky ones (the closest ones especially) with a direct hit, disabling or destroying their craft with a fatal shot. The rest flew off to dissipate into space, but the attack was spectacle mostly. Still, a dangerous looking spectacle, and one meant to capture attention.

The Mandalorians had received their signal, and spun about to escort the Tie-like Chiss fighter back amongst the larger fleet. A few would chase.. but this test of their mettal was a devised strategy. Commanders liked to poke their adversaries - especially when they sensed a fight. It was this way in nature too. When two large animals faced each other in combat. They would test each other, deciding the value of their attack before it was made. No animal wanted to assure it's own death - not even a Mandalorian.

<bzzt> "Draw them in, and then on my mark -- engage the enemy." <bzzt> The dice had to be tossed eventually, but always did the hunter seek the advantage.

The larger Emberline ships appeared in her visual just about then, and Jett no longer had to depend on radar to see where her reinforcement was. Disappointedly, she realized they weren't forming to engage. An explosion ripped across her viewport. A spinning piece of metal banged against the reinforced plating, sending a shock through her cockpit. <bzzt> "What was that?" <bzzt> But she already knew. One of the Mandalorian ships had caught a blast and exploded. A warrior had died in retreat. She felt her rage boiling up, and gripped her firing controls tight, ready to spin around for another pass - even though her four largest weapons still crackled from the heat of her original attack.

 

[Cyprian Ichar]

The Phiri was a tough cookie, but the cumulative effort of the largest Emberline ships was beginning to wear down its shields. The station started rotating, presenting its previous far side for punishment while it could begin to cycle some shield capacitors individually. For now, the fighter screens were holding, but pilots took note of one particular group (Mandos) whittling down their numbers with superior craft and maneuvers. All led by a most curious looking TIE fighter that cleaved through all opposition.

Some bloodlusted X-wing pilots suffering from tunnel vision attempted to give chase when the strange TIE and its followers withdrew back to the main enemy body, but commanders reigned them back with a rare display of discipline.

They had to stick to the plan.

As the incoming Union Corvettes and K-Wings began to be harassed by enemy interceptors, they released salvos of fléchette missiles in their wake while peppering their opposition with quad lasers. The missiles were especially effective within the ice field as the growing clouds of fléchettes were hard to avoid in confined spaces.

Closer to their targets, and the Corvettes began to release their main payloads, pulsemag torpedoes sent on a seemingly erractic course zigging and zagging near crystal formations to get closer to the big Emberline ships before they could be shot down.

Cyprian continued to follow the flow of the battle with the help of his sensor operator. It wasn't yet time to act, but they were close.

Jett Vox

 

[Jett Vox]

The spinning of stars was all there was to orient you sometimes, but that was something Jett knew well -- the stars. She shifted in her seat, her feet shifting each pedal alternately. A throttle on the right sent her flying forward while the pedals and controls did the rest. Precision flying and advanced sensors gave her the quick advantage <bzzt> "Torpedos inbound -- smart ones, big ones" <bzzt> came her warning over the com, and her remaining companion spun about to join her, engines sputtering from small arms blasts. She gripped her controls, checked her temp -- the gauge had cooled down, since she had switched to her blasters - but the lasers were more suited to this sort of jam and they came online just when they were needed! The constant beeping shut off - Jett had ignored it throughout - and a green light showed weapons ready. Zipping through the slower craft, she took careful aim at the first explosive and let loose a precision barrage.

The cruisers were more than she could handle, but these torpedoes were too small for the Emberline cruisers to target with the debris field that the enemy commander had positioned them in, Jett silently appreciated. The guile. The tactical gall. This had been precisely timed and precisely executed. She knew that even she and her companion wouldn't be able to shoot down the bulk, but the least she could do was reduce the population before they entered range of the smaller cannons. Another missile exploded, shot down by her companion, but one of the bombers had caught her and was attempting to catch up. It had superior speed, but that was a tactic Jett had perfected. She shifted her weight, pushing the right pedal and spinning her ball cockpit so that she maintained velocity - by shutting her engines off - and then fired her wing repulsors, which allowed her to turn her speedy escape into a strafing run. Between herself - her four massive Chiss-made lasers and her companion, the gunship exploded in debris. Flipping a switch fired up her engines, the reliable humm of Chiss-Imperial technology greeting the cockpit.

<bzzt> "I'm breaking off," she said into the com, "...return to the armada. I have to go after that enemy commander. That's who's rallying them, and there's no way to beat them if something isn't done." <bzzt>

The com opened up, and the voice on the other end replied,<bzzt> "That is not the Way... This is.." <bzzt>

The two Mandalorian craft turned about and resumed their course. Jett flicked a switch, which dropped a proton bomb into the pod. The next switch would arm it.

 

[Cyprian Ichar]

Enough time had passed, with the Emberline becoming invested. In fact, despite some scores on the part of the Unionists, the Emberline were beginning to edge them out. Mainly thanks to the mercenaries saving their bacon.

Emberline, thanks for playing.

"Bring us back online," he ordered, then shifted to comms to address the whole fleet on encrypted comms. "Initiate phase two."

One by one, the Balarac blastboats dislodged themselves from the ice, blaring jamming and spoofing signals on all non allied frequencies. The six black ships (likely appearing a several dozen more with ghost signatures) then surged toward the Emberline cruisers weaving and ducking through the ice fields just like the pulsemag missiles had before.

If they wanted an author of the Unionists improved tactics, they were about to meet him.

All the while, the corvettes and K-wings continued their harassment of big Emberline ships while trying to ward off enemy fighters, keeping to cover among the ice fields to rob the enemy cruisers' of the ability to leverage their superior firepower. From afar, the Phiri still hammered the main body with its bevy of guns.

As the Balarac made their approach, engineer crews in loading bays triggered pulsemass generators tied directly to the ships' reactors, creating large false mass shadows to nix the enemy hyperdrives.

There was no running from what was about to come.

Jett Vox

 

[Jett Vox]

Jetts sensors picked up the tracking signal of the newest threat as soon as they broke from their hiding places. She and her fellow Mando were zipping in and out of combat, like single firecrackers, evading fire while scattering pulses. They had done this before in combat drills... though it was meant for three fighters... they still somehow managed to dance between blaster bolts and avoid missile fire -- since they were just moving too fast to track them, Jett noticed as she felt tremors rumbling through the Chiss-made fighter. Her thumb flipped the red thumbguard away from a switch marked 'Overdrive' in common Mandalorian. She waited a moment until she and her fellow fighter zipped into the buffer space between combat and the command ship. <bzzt> "Watch my six -- I'm doing this.... Now." <bzzt>

A tremor rumbled through her fighter as she punched in the coordinates in the navcom she had built herself. The red keys glowed underneath the black-lit panel. She pushed it away and hit the switch. The hyperdrive pulsed once, feeding energy into the sublight engines - shooting her with a sudden boost directly at the exposed enemy command ship. A crackle came through just as she passed the communication threshold... and at last, she was face-to-face with... the Union asset, Phiri Station. She didn't hesitate, deploying the four high-yeild proton bombs directly targeted for the station. The creak and hiss of each one deploying gave a satisfying sensation. In space, the weight didn't matter... but Jett felt lighter.

The last one gone, she flipped her reverse jets and for the first time, witnessed the battle from afar. All the death and destruction. Ships exploding, as their payloads ignited. Fighters ending their attack runs in puffs of smoke or balls of fire... Jett gripped her controls tightly. With her engines depleted, she had to wrestle to turn her ship about... she wasn't going to wait to see the station explode. That would be far too dangerous. Glory in death was fine, but victory in life was far better.

 

[Cyprian Ichar]

Thus far, the fighter screens had been effective as warding off enemy bombing runs and boarding parties, but what no one hadn't accounted for was someone bold - or crazy - enough to warp right into the hornet's nest with a microjump. The bothersome TIE that had been the bane of the Unionists present came in too fast for any X-wing pilots to respond before they released their payload. Only the computer guided point defense lasers were quick enough to respond to the sudden blitz, but only just.

One bomb vaporized, then, two, but the final pair impacted against the Phiri two blazing white explosions as bright as a star. They busted the primary port shields, and then a good chuck of one of the rings with it. The greater super structure remained intact, but the whole station still rattled like it was beign shook by a giant invisible hand. Inside, crewmates were thrown about, many crumpling against bulkheads. Many more crewmen were sucked out of the station by the sudden vacuum created by a massive hull breach before emergency sealing activated.

The Phiri was far from dead but it was now far from being combat effective, either. A prolonged battle with the Emberline capital ships would see it ruined.

This much was reported to Cyprian as his blastboats raced toward the main formation.

"It's fine," he replied calmly. "Everyone knew we weren't getting out of this unscathed. Their fleet is done, anyway. The Phiri's starboard shields should be refreshed by now - have them rotate their good side toward the enemy fleet and begin plotting astrogation solutions - oh and have them tractor that TIE before it can flee."

Whoever was flying that TIE fighter was proving to be more than pain, but it would be almost a crime to simply glass someone so talented. Cyprian had won over Emberline from previous engagements - he could do it again.

The nimble blastboats closed in quickly on the Emberline capital ships, cutting through opposing fighters with rapid fire turbolasers and ion torpedo launchers. The Kobolds were a cut above the comparatively ancient Corellian gunships and K-wings, their ion energy torps especially nasty as they slammed into fighters at relativistic velocities. When laser fire did connect, enemy pilots were astonished when they were hit right back by retribution shielding. That was on top of the jamming and spoofing wrecking havoc on targeting, navigation, and comms where instrument flying was essential through the ice fields.

By now they were basically on top of the enemy fleet. "We're close enough....release the charges and then hit the SLAM."

The blastbloats finally stopped hugging the titanic ice structures to clear the field, dropping several blinking cylinders in their wake - seismic charges. The engines of the Kobolds flared up with crimson contrails as they punched their SLAM drives ahead of the explosions. Meanwhile, all around the Emberline fleet, orbs of green light flashed into existence before imploding on themselves and releasing scythes of destructive energy that diced through the ice crystals. Destructive waves of violent energy and giant crystals the sides of ships now rushed toward the Emberline ships.

Meanwhile, the Kobolds had cleared the immediate blast area, but their active mass shadow generators would ensure that none of the Emberline could jump away. The harassing Union corvettes and K-wings broke off, both far enough and agile enough to avoid the blasts.

This was the killshot, Cyprian and the rest prepared to make runs on whatever remained.

Jett Vox

 

[Jett Vox]

The Chiss fighter was equipped with it's own hyperdrive, which was plugged into a limited Nav computer, unlike the typical Chiss-made craft. Jett had procured it by breaking apart an old R2 droid, which allowed for a smaller, lighter processor. When enabled, the dome above her came to life, spinning to orient it's single "eye" as it struggled to make it's calculations. Yet it wasn't long before the Mandalorian realized the problem. Some kind of jamming was stopping her from engaging the hyperdrive, and none of the other ships were capable of jumping either.

Caught in the moment of uncertainty, the harriers took their toll. The darkness was alight with explosions that rocked the smaller ships with each casualty from the impacts of reflected energy. She sensed the tide had turned back, which wasn't unexpected, but was forceful beyond her original estimations. She had not expected them to be using Mandalorian tech! Through the coms, she tried to send a warning, <bzzt> "Cease fi-" <bzzt> but in an instant she was surrounded by debris and destroyed craft. These well-fitted enemy ships had an undeniable advantage in firepower, sheilding and tech. That they had managed any fight at all was a miracle.

Jett fired her retro-rockets again, strafing across the minefield of damaged and listing vessels. Her last companion had vanished. Likely lost in that terrible barrage, but she didn't have much time to think about it. Mandalorians died every day. She just hoped their Beskar would reach a youngling someday.

She didn't know if she was even close to reaching the range of their gravity well, or whatever was jamming her hyperdrive when suddenly a jolt shook her entire cockpit. Firing up her stabilizer jets, she tried to shake loose, but the tractor beam had caught the Clawcraft fighter in it's grip. Without any proton bombs, she wouldn't have much chance to escape, but she still had one trick left... though whether it would work was a gamble.


Jett reached under her controls and ripped away the panel that protected the wiring. Quickly she began deftly switching wires and modifying the weapons systems. If done properly, she could use the light laser cannons to overcharge the heavy laser canons. If done properly... and at the right time, she might get lucky enough to time it to free herself. The act would leave her likely almost completely defenseless, except for the light cannons, but it would be worth it. The tractor beam pulled her away from the remaining ships. She gripped the controls tightly, her fingers hovering over the weapon triggers tensely. There would be only one chance at this.

(Sorry for the um... 4 year delay)